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Someone Knows My Name: A Novel | 
| Author: Lawrence Hill
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.50
You Save: $6.45 (43%)
New (19) Used (7) from $8.33
Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 14051
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 1.4
ISBN: 0393333094
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780393333091
ASIN: 0393333094
Publication Date: November 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"Wonderfully written...as in the slave narratives that inspired it, language is power."—Nancy Kline, New York Times Book Review
Kidnapped as a child from Africa, Aminata Diallo is enslaved in South Carolina but escapes during the chaos of the Revolutionary War. In Manhattan she becomes a scribe for the British, recording the names of blacks who have served the King and earned freedom in Nova Scotia. But the hardship and prejudice there prompt her to follow her heart back to Africa, then on to London, where she bears witness to the injustices of slavery and its toll on her life and a whole people. It is a story that no listener, and no reader, will ever forget. Reading group guide included.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 Too Textbook For Me December 29, 2008
Good, not great. I enjoy historical fiction, but this one felt (literally) too textbook for me. I didn't mind the history, but really would have preferred if it were cloaked in a more personal story with stronger emotional ties to the characters.
 Captivating December 16, 2008
I listened to the audio version of this book during a very recent road trip, and I must say, I was floored. The story is so intricately carved and well spun, the writing so beautifully done, and the reading so adept; it was all quite masterful. Well done all.
This book is a page turner!!! December 13, 2008
Wonderfully written. I have read books about slavery in the U.S. but never before have I read a book about the abduction of Africans for slavery. The story line grabs you from the very begining of the book until the end. You won't be disappointed.
Eye Opener December 10, 2008
Someone knows my name is an excellent historical fiction. It begins with an African girl caught unawares while traveling with her mother back to the village by slave catchers. Her mother is killed defending her child. Her saga takes you from her capture, transatlantic voyage, enslavement in South Carolina, to New York, London, and back to Africa. I highly recommend this book as a worthy read.
The story is familiar to some degree. The African woman is raped and abused by the white man that owns her. She later has a child, Mamadu. He stolen from her by the master and sold away never to see him again. Her second child May is born to her while in Novo Scotia. The child is stolen by a white couple, who she works for, and believed were her friends.
The following are some excerpts that touched me in some way:
"My hands are the only part of me that still do me proud and that hint at my former beauty. The hands are long and dark and smooth, despite everything, and the nails are nicely embedded, still round, still pink. I have wondrously beautiful hands. I like to put them on things. I like to feel the bark on trees, the hair on children's heads, and before my time is up, I would like to place those hands on a good man's body, if the occasion arises."
Aminata was attending an Anglican church with one of the abolitionist. These words made me laugh:
"No wonder there wasn't a single solitary man or woman of African extraction in the church. If allowed to come, would they endure this hour of purgatory?"
"Come hell or high water, I would not be talked back into any Anglican church in this lifetime. If God had to be saluted, let it be among the Baptists of Birchtown or Freetown. At least they danced when they called out to Jesus, and hollered loud enough to keep the half-dead awake."
"In the corner of the map, I saw a sketch of an African child lying beside a lion under a tree. I had never seen such a ridiculous thing. No child would be foolish enough to sleep with a lion. In another corner of the map, I studied a sketch of a man with a long-tailed animal sitting on his shoulder.
This "Map of Africa" was not my homeland. It was a white man's fantasy."
A Wonderful Read September 15, 2008
In Someone Knows My Name, Lawrence Hill pens a breathtakingly beautiful work. While simple to read, its pages evince vitality and imagery known to only the best authors. Aminata, a free African girl, kidnapped by slave traders on the dawn of her "womanhood," records her journey from her homeland to foreign soil across the waters. It is the story of her struggle to not only preserve her identity and heritage, but a daily fight for her life, her family, and ultimately, her freedom. Although her tale is a fictional representation of the African diaspora, Hill's documentation of the movement, slave-trading, Revolutionary War, British loyalists and abolitionists remains quite intact.
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